Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Agricultural Engineering degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $59,688 two years after finishing, more than 75% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 38 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

B

The verdict on the money

Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level.

Median earnings $59,688 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $51,690–$61,303 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$20,168 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 936 38 programmes

Where a Agricultural Engineering degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 University of Maryland-College Park cost & debt at this university → $60,946 $73,164 $76,718 125
2 North Dakota State University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $59,019 $67,660 $69,536 11
3 University of Nebraska-Lincoln cost & debt at this university → not published $67,324 not published 5
4 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities $56,730 $65,238 $69,966 36
5 University of Georgia not published $64,791 $74,929 6
6 Purdue University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $63,560 $63,997 $67,255 57
7 University of Wisconsin-Madison cost & debt at this university → $61,703 $63,749 $72,002 47
8 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign cost & debt at this university → $56,190 $61,303 $68,455 75
9 Iowa State University cost & debt at this university → $63,141 $60,485 $64,891 62
10 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $60,836 $59,688 $65,766 25
11 Ohio State University-Main Campus cost & debt at this university → $50,931 $57,920 $65,412 56
12 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University $60,131 $57,318 $63,376 54

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $59,688 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $56,867 is what the typical programme reports, counting a class of twenty the same as a class of two thousand. The weighted figure is higher here, which means the larger programmes in this field are the better-paying ones.

It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection. The median bachelor's major in this dataset reports $42,682, so Agricultural Engineering sits above the middle by $17,006.

Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".

There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is published per institution — that is where our university cost pages carry it.

Scholarships for Agricultural Engineering students

Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.

See all Agricultural Engineering scholarships →

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Agricultural Engineering: the questions people ask

How much do Agricultural Engineering graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $59,688 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 26 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $59,306.
Is a Agricultural Engineering degree worth it?
Yes — graduates earn more than most majors at this level. The median graduate earns $20,168 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Agricultural Engineering?
Half of US programmes report medians between $51,690 and $61,303. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Agricultural Engineering each year?
About 936 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 38 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.

Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level, pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.